My Day at Salute 2015

I think it is safe to say that Salute has become the premier wargame show in the UK. I have being going to it since Kensington Town Hall was the venue back in the eighties. And with most years since that time the numbers attending seem to increase. Queuing has always been a fundamental part of the experience and this year was no exception. Due to my usual lack of planning I had left my on-line ticket purchase too late and had to buy a £15 ticket on the day (rather than the £10 on-line cost). However, standing in the 'more money than sense' queue did allow me to see the queue busters queue rapidly lose patience with the organises plan for gradual admittance. At roughly 23 minutes past 10.00am the organised lines decided they had had enough and all remaining people in the queue just made a beeline for the entrance. No harm done as far as I could see, but perhaps more planning next year is required.

People. These on the left, not bored by having to queue to get into Salute, were now queuing for Forgeworld

I of course had a budget for my day, and as usual I over spent. I had a small list of 'must gets' but I always expect to see things that I had forgotten I wanted, and those things that were new and brilliant. First stop the Hawk Wargame stand. Things bought; a box of PHR Helios and Angelos. I also couldn't resist one of their 'show only' models for their new spaceship game - Dropfleet (Andy Chambers designed) and the 30mm model of an Ares walker (it will look smart on an Infinity table). I also got to meet Andy. I have been a big fan since his work with GW and in particular his Skaven army, and I thanked him for the inspiration he brought me. He was a very nice chap despite me becoming a bit of a fan-boy at this point. I declined his kind offer of a selfie to keep some small amount of self respect!

A 30mm version of the Ares - Nice!

Next stop the nice people at Wartorn (www.wartorngames.com). You will not know their work as this is their first project. They have created a modern skirmish game called Infernal and it will soon be going to Kickstarter. I had done some play testing for it some months ago and they were show casing their first figures at the Show. I recommend you take a look, although please note I am biased.

Al giving the lowdown on Infernal in front of Jon's amazing terrain

 The Infernal stand - Go guys!

On the list of things I have always wanted is the conversion kit that turns the GW Imperial Guard Taurox kit into a wheeled model rather than the rather disappointing tracked version. Step forth Zinge Industries (www.zinge.co.uk) who had some very interesting pieces for you to add that something special to your models. Well worth a look.

4 Ground were rocking their thing

4 Ground doing more of their thing - too nice for words - apart from these. 

On the trail of Infinity relevant terrain I was drawn towards Antenocitis Workshop. They had their range of sci-fi cars and bikes (very nice) and three sided advertising screens which I purchased along with some Japanese themed garden pieces. I know that the latter were popular because they were sold out when I went back to buy some more.

Some very lovely Dropfleet ships

A couple of other things bought were aquarium plants for a jungle board I am planning (can't recall the supplier I got these from) and some road barriers from Urban Construct (www.urbanconstruct.co.uk). My nicest find, along with Zinge, was a range of MDF buildings from Wargame-Model-Mods (www.wargame-model-mods.co.uk). I bought their Outpost model which will be the centre piece of the aforementioned jungle board.

A very big Dropfleet ship. I'll take two please. Do you have a bag? 

Of course their were more than just traders at the show, there were a wide selection of games from all periods.